My NetFlix 2.0 Update News & Community Feedback (1 Viewer)

[WileECoyote]

My NetFlix 2.0 is progressing very nicely. It will look like a mixture of Moving Pictures and My TV Series in functionality.

Series/Season Information
With My NetFlix 1.x I used theMovieDb.org to pull fanart for pictures, but unfortunately that site only carries movies and not TV Series images. So I recently aquired a key from theTvDb.org to get TV Series fanart and Episode images. It has integrated rather well and looks very similar to the My TV Series plugin. The flow will now be...

- The Big Bang Theory
---- Season 1
---------- Pilot
---------- ...
---- Season 2
---- Season 3
---- ...

So when you click on The Big Bang Theory it will take you to the seasons and from there to the Episodes. The Episode view will have the episode images pulled from theTvDb.org.

Main Menu
The Main menu will have a similar feel to Moving Pictures. The flow for the main menu is like...

- Disc Queue
---- Tron
---- ...
- Instant Queue
---- Charles
--------- The Rock
--------- ...
---- Christopher
--------- ...
- At Home Queue
---- The Big Bang Theory Disc 1
---- ...
- Recommendations
---- ...
- Rental History
---- All Rental History
------- Tron
------- ...
---- Shipped History
---- Returned History
---- Watched History

Search
This is the area I am struggling with and I would like to have community feedback.
NetFlix currently has three datafeeds I pull from. The REST API that provides all the queue information (Disc, Instant, etc...), the OData which provides limitless searches for Instant/Disc/BluRay movies/Series and finally an RSS feed that provides the NetFlix Top 100 plus NetFlix Top 25 by genre. The REST and OData feeds provide all the information I need to populate the class data (availalbe formats, synopsis, title, etc...) but the NetFlix Top x only provides the tite and synopsis. Does everyone use the top x for movie searching? If I provided a few more 'like' searches to replace them would anyone miss the Top x? The searches I can provide will not return the identical movie list, but would be very similar.

The next question for the community is the details page. If the regular information populated with the Title, Runtime, Formats, Synopsis, Year and Ratings, would a detail page be needed? This would save coding as well as trips to NetFlix for data...

The next question is about multiple selections. With My NetFlix 1.x you can view upcoming movies, but to add them to the queue you have to hit info on each movie to add to the queue. This can be time consuming especially if there are 5-10 movies in the queue you want to add. I have been playing with the idea that a user could run through the entire list hitting the 'OK' or 'Enter' to select the movies they want to add, then hit the info button and select 'Add all selected movies'. This feature would be active on the Searches, Recommendations, History, Upcomming Releases and New Releases. The 'OK' button will still function as 'Play' while your in the Instant queue. The 'Play' button will play movies in any other queue.

Thanks for any and all feedback!
Wile E.

 

[Lolento]

Wile E,

I don't quite understand the questions that you're asking because I'm not familiar with how Netflix returns queries but just the idea that you want some feedback on how to sort the Netflix database. My suggestion is (if it is possible) to handle like MYTVSeries or Moving Pictures where you allow users to set this up to their liking in the plugin settings.

 

[KDP]

WileE,

I personally don't use the top x feeds except random times when I am bored at my PC, so I would see no loss in not having them. As for the second question, if the data is already being pulled on the coverflow pages, couldn't the data be buffered somehow so that the details page would only be redisplaying what is already polled? I know I use the detail page on Moving Pictures less and less, but this would save repolling Netflix if it is possible. Now as far as the multi queuing aspect, I think for the non tech savy users of MediaPortal (like my wife and kid) the non uniform operation could be confusing (not to mention I don't want them accidentally loading the queue up). Perhaps changing this multi selection to a lesser used button for those who are more informed to use it when desired, like one of the numberpad buttons or such?

 

[WileECoyote]

Wile E,

I don't quite understand the questions that you're asking because I'm not familiar with how Netflix returns queries but just the idea that you want some feedback on how to sort the Netflix database. My suggestion is (if it is possible) to handle like MYTVSeries or Moving Pictures where you allow users to set this up to their liking in the plugin settings.

Hey Lolento,
I am essentially asking three questions...

Do you use the Netflix Top 100? If I replaced it with something similar would it be okay?

Is the details page really necessary if most of the information is provided in the listing view? I've thought more about this and I think it is due to people using the other views, (filmstrip, coverart, etc)

Would a multiple selection be nice to add more than a disc at a time to the queue?

Thanks for the feedback!
Wile E.

 

[WileECoyote]

WileE,

I personally don't use the top x feeds except random times when I am bored at my PC, so I would see no loss in not having them. As for the second question, if the data is already being pulled on the coverflow pages, couldn't the data be buffered somehow so that the details page would only be redisplaying what is already polled? I know I use the detail page on Moving Pictures less and less, but this would save repolling Netflix if it is possible. Now as far as the multi queuing aspect, I think for the non tech savy users of MediaPortal (like my wife and kid) the non uniform operation could be confusing (not to mention I don't want them accidentally loading the queue up). Perhaps changing this multi selection to a lesser used button for those who are more informed to use it when desired, like one of the numberpad buttons or such?

Hey KDP,
Thanks for the feedback! That's a good idea about using a button other than the 'ok'. Maybe the record button? I am hesitant to use a numeric key as the are used to skip down the list (press 3 it skips to D in the list, etc...)

I think I will leave the details in.

Thanks again!
Wile E.

 

[gserg]

Hello Wile E,

First of all, Thank You for all your work on this. It sounds like 2.0 is going to be an amazing update. Now to your questions...

Do you use the Netflix Top 100? If I replaced it with something similar would it be okay?

Yes, that wouldn't make any difference to me.

Is the details page really necessary if most of the information is provided in the listing view? I've thought more about this and I think it is due to people using the other views, (filmstrip, coverart, etc)

It would be nice to have a details page I guess but if it wasn't there, I would be ok with it because I use the list view. But as you mention, others that use a different view might have a harder time.

Would a multiple selection be nice to add more than a disc at a time to the queue?

This is something I probably would not use. I don't use the plugin for DVD management. I use it for instant only. That seems to be where Netflix is guiding us anyway.

Thanks again for your hard work.

 

[gserg]

I was also going to mention that I use lists that come up in the main netflix page quite a bit. When I log into Netflix with a web browser, there are lists like new movies, new tv, and recommendations based on my history, etc. I find those lists quite helpful. I don't know if there is any way to incorporate those.

 

[WileECoyote]

I was also going to mention that I use lists that come up in the main netflix page quite a bit. When I log into Netflix with a web browser, there are lists like new movies, new tv, and recommendations based on my history, etc. I find those lists quite helpful. I don't know if there is any way to incorporate those.

Hey gserg,
Recommendations will be included as a regular Queue... Disc, Instant, At Home, Recommendations & Rental History will be the standard queues. I have also incorporated a 'Recently Added' queue to show the last 15 Instant movies that were added to the queue.

I have added quite a few searches to replace the top 100. You will still be able to search for Instant movies via Genre as well as other ways. The searches I have defined thus far are...

Recently Released
- Instant (By Genre and Television Series)
- DVD
- BluRay

Upcoming Releases
- Instant (By Genre & Television Series)
- DVD
- BluRay

Top Rated
- Top 100
- Top 100 by Genre

Title Search
- Search by title

Year Search
- Search movies by release year
- By year & genre

The other searches like Similar titles and Person search will still be available...

Wile E.

 

[gserg]

Sweet, sounds like its going to be great.

 

[jmvaughn]

I like the idea of being able to add multiple selections to the queue. Unlike one of the above posters, I use My Netflix nearly exclusively for DVD queue management and status, and rarely for Instant viewing.

The menu layout you described looks good. Will there continue to be support for multiple DVD queues (i.e., sub accounts)? This is a very important feature to me, and I hope you give it some consideration.

Thanks for your continued hard work.